Feb. 18, 2014
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2011. / Geoff Caddick, AFP

by Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

by Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

Fresh revelations that allege the National Security Agency and GCHQ - the British equivalent - secretly monitored Internet traffic to WikiLeaks and websites of other activist groups are sure to raise concerns from those who feel the U.S. and U.K. governments have repeatedly overstepped the decency mark in tracking online and cellphone activity.

It's certainly causing concern for WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, who released a statement after documents and information with the claims were published by former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald's new project The Intercept on Tuesday.

"WikiLeaks strongly condemns the reckless and unlawful behavior of the National Security Agency. We call on the Obama administration to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate the extent of the NSA's criminal activity against the media including WikiLeaks and its extended network," Assange said in a statement.

Setting to one side the very big issues of covert surveillance, how and whether it should be done, and how in the end you prosecute it in certain circumstances, here's a suggestion for Assange: On the day you are complaining about how the NSA is defining you as a "malicious foreign actor" don't try to sell the rest of us a "fun T-shirt." WikiLeaks needs the revenue. Fine. But it may ultimately distract from the debate to take the moral high ground and put on the hard sell in the space of one tweet, as @wikileaks did this morning.

After all, Che Guevara's cause effectively died twice, the first time in a South American jungle, the second time when he became a retail merchandiser's pop cultural hero.